EMERGENCE
Audrey Allan
Sarena Arsenault
Carmen Bouvier
Taylor Carpenter
Katja Ewart
Amy Marui
Karina Nardi
Ari Pielecki
Nick Tai
Aliana Voshell
Vernon Public Art Gallery
May 23 - July 16, 2024
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 - 31st Avenue, Vernon, British Columbia, V1T 2H3, Canada May 25 - July 12, 2023
Production: Vernon Public Art Gallery
Editor: Lubos Culen
Layout and graphic design: Vernon Public Art Gallery
Front cover: Karina Battista and Jahangir Hussein (detail), 2024, (diptych), mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 in each
Printing: Get Colour Copies, Vernon, British Columbia, Canada
ISBN 978-1-927407-84-4
Copyright © 2024 Vernon Public Art Gallery
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the Vernon Public Art Gallery. Requests for permission to use these images should be addressed in writing to the Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 31st Avenue, Vernon BC, V1T 2H3, Canada, Telephone: 250.545.3173, website: www. vernonpublicartgallery.com
The Vernon Public Art Gallery is a registered not-for-profit society. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee/RDNO, the Province of BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, British Columbia Arts Council, the Government of Canada, corporate donors, sponsors, general donations and memberships. Charitable Organization # 108113358RR.
This exhibition is sponsored in part by:
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD
On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff at the Vernon Public Art Gallery, we are happy to welcome students from the 2024 graduating class at University of British Columbia Okanagan’s BFA program in this year’s exhibition Emergence.
This exhibition showcases the various mediums and styles being explored by some of the top students from this graduating class. Included in this year’s Emergence exhibition are the following graduates:
• Audrey Alan
• Serena Arsenault
• Carmen Bouvier
• Taylor Carpenter
• Katja Ewart
• Amy Marui
• Karina Nardi
• Ari Pielecki
• Nick Tai
• Aliana Voshell
Congratulations to each of you in achieving this milestone in your artistic exploration. Guiding these graduates through their studies were Co-Instructors for Advanced Art Practices Courses: David Doody and Andreas Rutkauskas with the Faculty of Creative Studies, UBC, Okanagan Campus. Included in this publication is a message from David Doody.
I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia, the Regional District of the North Okanagan, and the BC Arts Council, whose funding enables us to produce exhibitions such as this for the North Okanagan region and interested parties across Canada.
Regards,
Dauna Kennedy Executive Director Vernon Public Art GalleryEMERGENCE - INTRODUCTION
Emergence is a group exhibition featuring the works of five recent graduates from UBCO’s Bachelor of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Media Studies program. The exhibition showcases a range of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media printmaking installation, and experimental film. The various artworks explore themes related to art history, the human condition, mental health and gender identity.
The artists in the exhibition draw on a variety of influences, including art history and traditional modes of artistic production, but include contemporary digital art forms as well as sculptural installation. Many of the works are based on research, and some are also informed by personal experiences and exploration.
The exhibition Emergence offers a diverse and thought-provoking collection of works that highlight the talent and creativity of these emerging artists, as well as their engagement with important social and cultural issues.
The Vernon Public Art Gallery (VPAG) has hosted annually the exhibition of BFA graduates from the UBCO since 2029. The VPAG is pleased to provide a platform for each new generation of thinkers and artists. This group of artists continue in the tradition of their predecessors to start the new chapter in their lives and contribute to the critical discourse focused on research and studio practices.
Audrey AllanAudrey Allan’s exploration of a gestural mode of delivery is closely married to Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field abstraction. The large-scale paintings create an environment for the viewer to immerse themselves in fields of colour. The dynamism of gestural brushstrokes suggests the movement and duration in time.
Despite the non-representational appearance, Allan’s inspiration is based on various visual cues she encounters in daily life. The selection of colours is often derived from observing film stills or album covers. Allan’s approach to painting is process oriented and without detailed preliminary sketches. The overlay of various passages of colours and gestural brush marks builds the matrix for the viewer to examine each painting’s history and a felt resolution of pictorial space.
Serena Arsenault’s studio practice is based on tenets that combine Realism and Surrealism. Her oil paintings are intimate portrayals of people in ordinary domestic situations based on contextualization of old photographs. There is often a great feeling of melancholia in trying to understand her bicultural origin. Arsenault weaves various fictitious narratives which are a result of observing family photographs to understand her bicultural existence. She selects visual elements found in the photographs and then transposes them in the paintings creating new spaces for her imagined protagonists. Her paintings are emotionally charged, and the created spaces are often minimalistic and austere that adds to the tension invoked by minimalist compositions.
Carmen BouvierCarmen Bouvier is focused on figurative sculpture and the use of found objects. For the body of work presented in the exhibition Emergence, Bouvier created figurative sculptures solely from branches found on the ground in her immediate surroundings. Bouvier points out that the process of gathering of the branches is a meditative process where she can stay focused on her state of being. The work created has in many ways a diaristic quality and offers the viewer glimpses into the human conditions emphasizing emotional wellbeing and connection with others.
The branches used to create figurative sculptures are in many ways synonymous with Bouvier’s observation about the impermanent nature of all life forms while empathizing the inner beauty of natural life forms.
Taylor Carpenter
Taylor Carpenter’s studio practice emphasizes combining gestural mark making using ink and wide brushes juxtaposed with passages of minute details rendered in graphite. Carpenter’s works are a result of vigorous compositions devoid of any ‘point of entry’ or striving to balance pictorial elements. Carpenter’s mode of operation includes producing multiple abstract compositions on paper which are digitized and manipulated with the various tools In Photoshop. In the final creation of painting/drawing, Carpenter offers the viewer abstract compositions which rely on gestural delivery which create the pictorial structures complemented by detailed renderings of smaller abstract passages.
Katja Ewart’s studio practice is focused on creating installations of multiple screen prints on fabric and mulberry paper. The images are of places Ewart visited and photographed and later used as source imagery for her prints. Ewart points out that the photographs are of places which might go unnoticed in daily life. The installation, which contains multiple prints serve as a memory map of places visited and experienced with individuals who share her memories.
The multiple images which create the installation are suspended at various heights and in front of each other. The individual pieces are suspended in several layers and thus some images on prints are partially obscured, others can be viewed unobstructed. The installation serves as a lyrical metaphor for active, recent, and fading memories.
Amy MaruiAmy Marui artworks are realized in ceramics and mixed media paintings. Generally, Marui addresses the issues of the human condition resulting from childhood trauma, neglect, and mental health. The figurative paintings are situated in the area between representation and abstraction and display gestural mark making and collage elements. The images of paintings are emotionally charged with traumatic undertones. The figures are portrayed unclad which amplifies their vulnerability and lonely existence. Despite the challenging subject matter, Marui offers the viewers a framework for contemplation of the human condition and advocacy for individuals understanding.
Karina NardiKarina Nardi’s creative process is based mostly on the deconstruction of known facts and the reassembly within different contexts. Her works in the exhibition is somewhat autobiographical and which conceptually include references to historical facts. Nardi’s artwork references the intertwining of histories, cultures, and identities and uses the historical personages from Italy and the Mughal Empire as the source imagery for her artwork. After the deconstruction of original images of herself and her partner, Nardi produced two diptychs of portraits in watercolour and in mixed media.
In the larger context, Nardi’s artwork reflects the complexities of cultural identity and the artificiality of the global division of ‘East’ and ‘West’ and an ongoing conflict(s) between the two colonial constructs.
Ari Pielecki is an independent filmmaker and visual artist. His experimental narrative film titled The Yearning is a fictitious story of a sailor marooned on an inhospitable land. In the narrative, the protagonist must face uncomfortable circumstances both physical and emotional. The film progresses at a slow pace which heightens the emotional impact of the viewer’s engagement with the narrative. Ari Pielecki points out in his statement: “The Yearning engages with an idea that sometimes factuality must be neglected in favour of a greater truth – en emotional truth. This stems from the phrase “the ecstatic truth”, coined by the documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog to describe films that stretch reality to obtain more significant meaning.”
Nick TaiNick Tai’s studio practice focuses on oil painting and influences for his artwork include Surrealism, Cynical Realism, and realism. The body of work produced for the exhibition examines the means of digital and analogue processes. In his Pork Chop Bento, Tai makes reference to the handmaid ‘analogue’ painting which include the rendering of a digital pattern that approximate oversized pixelation. Tai’s paintings in the exhibition are a homage to the foods which he remembered growing up in Taiwan and alluding to nostalgia and memory.
Aliana Voshell’s photographic work addresses the issues of the human condition based on her personal experiences as a person living with ADHD. The work addresses the challenges of personal feelings of loneliness and alienation that are heightened by mental health issues. Vashel’s installation consists of a set of photographs complemented by handwriting on translucent Mylar sheets. The writing is emotionally charged and outline instances of personal struggles of daily living. The titles provide the viewer with the essences of states of being outlining the heightened instances of panic attack, distance, and witnessing the discomfort in some negative instances.
Lubos Culen CuratorVernon Public Art Gallery
MESSAGE FROM CO-INSTRUCTORS OF ADVANCED ART PRACTICES COURSES
The Bachelor of Fine Arts studio program at UBC Okanagan is a rigorous four year degree in the Faculty of Critical and Creative Studies. Here students are regularly challenged to critically explore and creatively cultivate art practices through a variety of mediums in relation to historical and contemporary art discourses. During this time students are steeped in a melting pot of traditions where Painting, Drawing, Printmaking, Photography and Sculpture are intermixed with Film studies, Performance and Digital New Media. Within the university walls, the halls and the studios, students are encouraged to remix, rethink and reimagine what this thing called Art really could be.
Over the weeks, months and years of their degrees, students grow together, they build community, they share experiences and they support one another. They become something like a team or maybe even, more like a family. I, David Doody, have had the great pleasure teaching alongside my colleague Andreas Rutkauskas, to mentor these emerging artists during the last leg of their academic journey. We have helped guide them to enrich their practices and refine their artworks for their graduating exhibition. This year 23 Bachelor of Fine Arts students and 19 Bachelor of Media Studies students came together to present an outstanding show of new Art and Design in our community with Context Not Included.
We are so grateful for the support of the Vernon Public Art Gallery, under the stewardship of Curator Lubos Cullen, for their long term commitment to exhibiting Emergence. VPAG’s continued support of our graduating students showcasing the annual Emergence exhibition brings together a curated selection of works from the 2024 UBCO’s BFA/BMS Graduating Exhibition Context Not Included. There is no single medium, nor theme, nor artist that can sum up what Art now is all about… so, we’d like present you with a taste of what the emerging artists in our program have on their palette.
Emergence offers a unique look into the exciting new works of ten artists awakening from the chrysalis of art and academia. Through paint, print, photography, film and found materials these artists spread their wings and take flight into their first public art exhibition.
David Doody and Andreas RutkauskasCo-Instructors of Advance Art Practices Courses
Faculty of Creative Studies
University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus
ARTISTS AND THEIR WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION
Audrey Allan
In my artwork, I draw inspiration from my surroundings, translating images and emotions into paintings. My practice involves creating immersive environments that engage viewers and invite interpretation. For me, abstraction serves as a ground to explore new materials and techniques, which allows me to embrace spontaneity in my process. The quick-drying properties of acrylic paint allows me to work in multiple layers, employing both traditional brushes and slightly more unconventional tools such as spray bottles.
I often gravitate towards recurring subjects, drawing from album covers and film stills for color schemes and compositions. These serve as the basis for my abstract explorations of color fields, evolving organically throughout my sketches and final pieces.
My painting Fundamentally Cold features slightly abstracted plant forms along with cyanotype photo printing process and UV screen print. This piece, much like the rest of my work, was inspired by pieces of media I have been consuming this year. I aim to have my paintings be direct translations of my emotions and interpretations in a way in which it is not essential that the viewers are familiar with my references, but rather that they may experience my reactions in a new context.
My art is a reflection of the world around me, allowing me to express feelings and essences sampled from diverse sources. Ultimately, I aim for viewers to engage with my work on their own terms, finding their own meanings within it.
Lemonade Springs, 2024, acrylic on cotton, 99 x 102 in 122 x 91 cm
Serena Arsenault
Serena Arsenault is a visual artist exploring realism and surrealism through oil painting. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in the exploration of cultural identity. Drawing inspiration from old photographs of her mother’s childhood in Hong Kong, she began investigating these visual time capsules out of this desire to feel more connected with this side of her heritage. Serena grew up in Vernon, B.C. Never having been to Asia before, she often felt like an outsider. Confused with her own identity at times, she reached for these photographs in an attempt to feel more connected to her ethnic background. However, the same feeling of disconnection remained after recognizing how the images depicted memories that were not her own, nor could she recognize many of the people nor settings. This is how the idea of recontextualizing new narratives came to life.
Serena’s process involves carefully selecting and deconstructing elements from the photographs — perhaps a gesture, a facial expression, or a particular object. These fragments serve as the building blocks for her own imagery, which then is manipulated and reinterpreted through the medium of oil painting. Through this process of collage and reconstruction, she is able to construct new narratives that transcend the specificity of the original photographs. In addition, by juxtaposing and layering different elements, she invites the viewers to explore the depths of imagination.
What are you looking at? and What happens next? pull figures out from these photographs where they are then placed in a new setting that Serena creates. While exploring composition and space within the painting, she recontextualizes these fragments of the past within her own artistic vision. Serena is able to weave together disparate threads of narrative and emotion, forging new connections and meanings for herself. This interplay between reality and imagination, lies at the heart of Serena’s artistic practice.
What Are You Looking At?, 2024, oil
on canvas, 30 x 36 in
What is Over There?, 2024, oil on canvas, 36 x 48 in
Next?,
What Happens 2024, oil on canvas, 20 x 26 in Carmen BouvierMy name is Carmen Bouvier, and I am an artist with a focus on sculpture, notably with found materials. While I have always been fond of utilizing branches and other natural objects in my artwork in the past, my practice has led me to giving these materials a much larger focus. I aim to create my artwork solely from branches I find on the ground, from the places closest to me. During my many hours of gathering materials in the wooded areas near my home and campus, I find peace — time where I am alone with myself, where I can reflect upon myself and where I am mentally in my life.
To me, the process of creation is always the most wonderful experience rather than actually concluding a project. I feel that when I am working on a piece, I am leaving many parts of myself and the circumstances in my life within those sculptures, leaving them inside like a sort of time capsule, or a personal diary written in a language only for myself. I can only hope that the emotion I feel while creating these sculptures, however abstract they may seem, can reach out to others as well and create a sort of unspoken connection between us. I try to impart empathy and compassion in my pieces — a sense of humanity, and the simple longing for connection and comfort.
We are not much different from the materials I use — we are not permanent, and we will crumble with time, but it only makes this brief time all the more beautiful. There is something lovely in every branch, in an abandoned snail shell that was once a home, an intricately spindled pinecone, the pattern of a wasp nest — sometimes it simply requires a closer look. I hope that my art can inspire audiences to see beauty in the everyday as well, and appreciate what nature provides so readily. And that through my art, we can understand one another.
When You Have Fears That We May Cease To Be, 2023, branches, 58 x 36 x 32
Homesick (detail), 2024, branches, snail shells, and natural materials, 58 x 36 x 32 in
Homesick (detail), 2024, branches, snail shells, and natural materials, 58 x 36 x 32 in Three Graces, 2022, oil on cradled panel, 152 x 101 cm
Taylor
CarpenterMy name is Taylor Carpenter. I am a multi-media artist based in Lake Country B.C. My practice explores the dialogue that emerges through juxtaposing detailed rendering, and quickgestural mark-making.
I spent much of my childhood in a mundane suburban home in Edmonton, Alberta. Across from our dinner table in my family home hung a painting by Kim Norlin. A small wooden cabin sat across a calm lake, with a vast forest framing the home. Upon closer inspection of her work, I discovered tiny mundane moments. Rabbits bounced among the grass, deer hid behind distant trees, and owls sat in branches. Every meal I would spend time with that painting, surprising myself with what I could find. This interaction subconsciously has stuck with me throughout my art practice. My goal is to persuade my viewers to spend time with my work, discovering precious moments crowded among abstract gestural marks and intense graphic elements.
I begin my process with mark-making. I look to modernists such as Wassily Kandinsky; studying how they command, yet intuitively allow their gestures to guide their art. I create countless sheets of pure gestural abstraction, that I then bring into the contemporary world through digital distortion. I specifically use the Lasso tool in Photoshop, I appreciate the aggressive, often annoying moments that emerge with this tool. My goal is not to make balanced compositions, rather I search for and collect moments that are created through this process and synthesize my findings into a singular collage. I recognize the work of early collage artists such as Pablo Picasso, who pioneered collage yet were confined to its materiality. Technology has allowed me to invite the medium into a contemporary space, celebrating gestures unique to digital distortion.
My artistic practice consists of both traditional rendering and gestural mark-making. Addressing intimate moments that emerge through the collaboration between ink and graphite. I invite my viewers to immerse themselves in my work, to discover those small moments that are drowned by the aggressive composition.
Rhytidome, 2024, graphite, acrylic, and ink on canvas,48 x 36 in
Foams, 2024, graphite,acrylic spray paint, and charcoal on canvas
Foams (detail), 2024, graphite,acrylic spray paint, and charcoal on canvas
Katja Ewart
My recent work examines how an individual’s memories are influenced by landscape and environment. The intention of the work is to act as a gesture of gratitude towards the places and individuals who have shaped my memories, and also highlight the details of nature that go unnoticed in daily life. The imagery in the work is a collection of personal memories that I have created in British Columbia since moving from Alberta. By printing on organic textiles and large strips mulberry paper, the imagery of my memories is presented all at once, each image effecting and distorting another.
The technical processes I use to create my work allow me to slow down and spend time with a photograph, even if the image was captured with less serious intentions in mind. I prefer creating my work with mediums that allow me to edit and alter the image physically rather than digitally, and I find it both rewarding and frustrating as both film photography and printmaking have a greater possibility for error. However, I have discovered that often, these accidents teach me a lesson. Other times, the accidents serendipitously change the work.
Happyness Only Real When Shared (installation element), 2024, screen print on mulberry paper, 90 x 23 in
Illecillewaet Glacier Falls (installation element, detail), 2024, screen print on linen, 45 x 80 in
Amy MaruiAmy Marui is a ceramic and mixed medium artist whose works explore the relationships we have with ourselves, others, and the world. The excavation through these memories takes place using a variety of materials she is drawn to. Her figurative works appreciate the beauty of the human form while using it as a vehicle to examine the struggles of mental well-being. Through her work with clay she constructs bodies that intermingle with each other, creating a conversation with their interactions and the environment they are displayed through vulnerable forms, these figures evoke feelings of empathy, longing, stillness, and a desire to care for. Drawing inspiration from classical sculpture and painting, Marui strives to balance between realism and the abstract nature of emotions. Finding balance between the explicit nudity and childlike naïveté; Marui’s figures are rooted in personal experiences of childhood neglect, trauma, mental health struggles, and body image.
Her artwork allows the viewer to digest uncomfortable realities through a spoonful-of-sugar method, leaning towards reframing difficult conversations within a lens of pastel-tinted truth.
Working towards open conversations about feeling different, forgiveness, the complexities of relationships, and the importance of support during mental crises is the goal of her art pieces. Dismantling the taboo around these topics using visually softening colors enables a smoother translation of the darker content in her work.
Amy Marui’s art is an exploration of external and personal struggles, juxtaposing hard and soft elements. Marui’s work appreciates the nuances of the human experience, striving to dismantle stigmas through a visually softened lens. Ultimately, her art invites reflection, empathy, and a deeper understanding of each other.
Rarely Too Many... Often Never Enough, 2024, unfired clay, 75 pieces (3 x 3 in each)
Hold Me Tighter, 2024, mixed media on board,30 x 30.5 in
The Hollow, 2024, mixed media on board, 2024, mixed media on board, 35.5 x 47.5 in
Karina Nardi
I am a painter and mixed media artist living on the unceded territories of the Syilx Okanagan People in Lake Country, BC. I like to deconstruct and then reassemble things to understand and recontextualize them.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the intertwining of histories, cultures, and identities that happen with love. Karina Battista and Jahangir Hussein is a set of two diptychs, inspired by the Italian Renaissance diptych The Duke and Duchess of Urbino Federico da Montefeltro and Battista Sforza (Uffizi 1890 nn. 1615, 3342) and the Mughal miniature Portrait of Emperor Jahangir (MET 13.228.47). I reinterpret these iconic figures with a contemporary twist, by overlaying portraits of myself and my partner and using watercolour and mixed media. The two portraits of women in my diptychs pay homage to Battista Sforza, a woman of intellect in 15th century Urbino. The Jahangir Hussein portraits are based on the 17th century Mughal Emperor Jahangir, a patron of the arts and a symbol of cultural exchange.
Using photographs of my partner and myself, I merged the past with the present, overlaying our likenesses on the original artworks. I then rendered these overlays as sepiatoned watercolour portraits, which make up the first diptych. They retain the spirit of the historical figures while giving them personal relevance. The second diptych consists of two large mixed-media portraits which are based on tactile and material exploration. For these, I deconstructed textiles such as wool sweaters and pillowcases, and decorated the faces with botanical and symbolic imagery, while playfully reimagining their clothing. My artworks reflect the complexities of identity, belonging, and cultural exchange in a world marked by the legacies of colonialism. My portraits are steeped in personal meditations on the troubling, yet enduring, colonial constructs of “East” and “West” that arise through the violent histories of imperialism, capitalism, and ethno-religious nationalism. They are also about love, partnership, humour, and the power of the arts and humanities to transcend difference, time, and space.
Karina Battista and Jahangir Hussein, 2024, (diptych) watercolour on paper, 24 x 18 in each
Karina Battista and Jahangir Hussein, 2024, (diptych), mixed media on canvas, 60 x 48 in each
Ari Pielecki
Ari Pielecki is an independent filmmaker and visual artist originally from Vernon BC. His childhood was spent playing in the forests and fields near his home, where he and his friends would pretend they were adventurers exploring long forgotten magical lands. These imaginative childhood games greatly influence his practice today. He is currently examining themes of isolation, perseverance, and survival in his work. Ari is also interested in exploring how human beings interact with both natural and manufactured environments. Inspired by filmmakers such as Terrence Malick and Kelly Reichardt, he strives to incorporate a naturalistic look and feel into his work, even if the subject matter is fantastical. Ari currently lives and works on the unceded territory of the Syilx Peoples in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.
The Yearning is an experimental narrative short film following the story of a sailor who is left to die on the shores of a strange and perilous land. There, the protagonist encounters otherworldly creatures which make him question reality as he struggles to survive. The story has three levels: the framing narrative in which an older version of the protagonist tells the story to the audience, the primary narrative which consists of the protagonist’s physical experiences, and the interior narrative in which the dreams and memories of the protagonist are played out. The Yearning engages with the idea that sometimes factuality must be neglected in favor of a greater truth – an emotional truth. This stems from the phrase “the ecstatic truth”, coined by the documentary filmmaker Werner Herzog to describe films that stretch reality to obtain more significant meaning.
The Yearning, 2024, screenshot from experimental narrative film, 14 minutes
The Yearning, 2024, screenshot from experimental narrative film, 14 minutes
The Yearning, 2024, screenshot from experimental narrative film, 14 minutes
Nick TaiNick is a visual artist whose core practice is based on oil medium, pursuing styles like surrealism, cynical realism, and realism. In this series, his artworks confront the contrast between digital and analog processes, while exploring the parallel intricacy between the preparation process between meals and paintings in realism.“
Digital technology allows us to freeze time by capturing a moment, for example, a photograph of a meal; where it is locked in time without an expiration. There are two components to a meal: preparation and consumption, both temporary with an expiration. A meal can take ten minutes or ten hours to prepare and is usually consumed in minutes, furthermore, it can shared or consumed alone; therefore meals have collected memories from the beginning to its end. With the help of digital photography, I can translate intricate memories onto canvases, and most importantly the preservation of these memories.”
Beef noodle soup and Bentos series are personal remembrances of his Taiwanese experiences as a child; Beef noodle soup is a homage to Taiwanese origin and ethnic backgrounds (families), while Bentos series is a remembrance of youth conformity and convenience. The Food series became an homage for the artist to invite viewers to appreciate the intricacy of individual lives.
In this series of artworks, Nick painted memorable meals he experienced in his life, ranging from his childhood experiences in Taiwan to his young adult exploration in Canada. The subject matter becomes a merge of cultural differences and collective memories left from a digital image. “Each meal contains a story with an expiration as we finish the meal. We capture the visual meals with photography to preserve the story, from preparation to consumption, our experience forever digitized; our precious time with or without people. Meals connect me to loved ones, strangers, and myself. Each meal is a plate of memories categorized by emotions, time of day, place, and relationships.”
Beef Noodle Soup, 2024, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in
Fried Chicken Bento, 2023, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in
Pork Chop Bento, 2023, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in
Aliana Voshelll
Since the start of my career in 2021, I’ve focused on channeling my talent and creativity into meaningful and powerful messages. I have developed strong images in photography relating to the themes of expressionism in humanity, and abstract viewpoints of portraits, wildlife and nature in photography. My goal as an artist is to start the conversation and bring to light the way we see the world and how to best show new ways of understanding what we may or may not already know through discovery.
The inspiration for this piece is the fragility of glass when it is shattered by a rock. To me, the rock represents the damaging words used in society to break people and silence them into the fear that their emotions and ideas don’t matter. To represent glass I chose transparent acrylic sheets because of their unique blends, resilience, and imperfections. The writing on the images represents the response of the mind to damaging words and opinions.
I have always felt alone in society. Having ADHD in a world with strong opinions makes it hard to express your own. I have lived life always trying to act correctly and never to say what comes to mind because it is deemed rude or thoughtless. This work is to represent not just the beauty of an appearance but to help people and society realize it’s not just glass you’re throwing that rock into. I have thoughts and Ideas too however imperfect they are. By bringing in photography and perspective through emotional writing, the work can be viewed from multiple perspectives. My work is responding to the issues we face in society almost daily — the feelings of not being heard, feeling like an outcast, or even just feeling out loud. Sometimes I just want to scream at the world and say what I want, but I can’t because of how I would be seen in society and by people.
We live in a perfectly imperfect world. These works challenge the audience to look inward, letting go of harmful social constructs and embrace other’s imperfections while understanding and acknowledging their own.
Panic Attack, 2024, photography/mixed media, 32 x 26 in
I’ll Remember, 2024, photography/mixed media, 32 x 26 in
Installation view at the Faculty of Critical and Creative studies gallery, University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus April 20 - 26, 2024
